Madison school board approves unpopular 2013-2014 calendar

The Madison school board on Tuesday approved a district calendar for 2013-2014. (Crystal Bonvillian/cbonvillian@al.com)

MADISON, Alabama - The calendar for Madison students' 2013-2014 academic year became official Tuesday night, but not by the choice of school officials.

The school board approved a calendar that has students beginning classes on Aug. 19 and ending the year on May 23. There is no fall break in the schedule and students will return from the Christmas break on Jan. 3 - a Friday.

Dennis James, the district's director of student services and security, explained to the board and the public that the district didn't have much choice in the matter.

"This is the calendar that we're forced to abide by, by current law," James told the board.

A 2012 state law requires that school districts across Alabama start school around Aug. 20 and end before the Memorial Day holiday. Students previously began classes about two weeks earlier.

The shortened school year has forced districts to eliminate fall break and shorten other breaks.

Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison, has introduced a bill that would allow districts waivers of the law's requirements. School officials from Madison, Huntsville and Madison County have backed the proposed bill.

The three districts' superintendents also met on Monday to announce that they were aligning their calendars to ensure that students all had the same calendar.

All three are also planning alternate calendars in case Holtzclaw's bill passes. Those calendars would have students starting school on Aug. 6 and would include a fall break.

The Madison County school board last week approved its calendars. Huntsville's board is anticipated to approve that district's calendars later this month.